There is way too much hype around young players this days. Score a couple nice of goals and suddenly you are a super star.
And this is an issue here in South America. Everyday you hear about the next Messi or the next Neymar. Clubs and players only want to get that "big" money (2-5M) move to Europe and that's it.
Just look at Gabigol, a nobody that was hyped to death and where is he now?
And these might be players with lots of potential but it is hard to keep your feet on the ground at 18 suddenly earning millions and hearing from everybody that you are already a super star. Lots of players fall through the cracks, wander a few years in Europe and then go back to their countries or china, etc.
As a result the quality of the national teams and leagues has nose dived. 15-20 years ago Brazilian and Argentinian teams were true heavy weights and actually could compete with European teams at the Intercontinental Cup. Nowadays South American teams have no chance of beating European teams.
Rant over